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Last year, Houston’s City Council tackled some challenging issues, including passage of an equal rights ordinance, and folding app-based paid ride services into rules governing transportation in the city. On this edition of Houston Matters, we discuss what’s in store for the Houston City Council in 2015 with reporter Mike Morris, who covers City Hall […]

Last year, Houston’s City Council tackled some challenging issues, including passage of an equal rights ordinance, and folding app-based paid ride services into rules governing transportation in the city.

On this edition of Houston Matters, we discuss what’s in store for the Houston City Council in 2015 with reporter Mike Morris, who covers City Hall for the Houston Chronicle.

Also this hour: About a quarter of a million Texas kids live with some family member, or close friend, other than their parents. This keeps them out of foster care, but can put a financial strain on their caregivers, for which there’s little public financial support. Should there be? A senior policy analyst with the progressive think tank, the Center for Public Policy Priorities, last month told Houston Public Media’s Carrie Feibel what little financial aid exists for such “kinship caregivers” should be increased to match the money provided to foster parents. But why should taxpayers support child care costs for a grandparent, or aunt or uncle, in a way they would not support costs for parents? We ask Katherine Barillas, Director of Child Welfare Policy at One Voice Texas, a non-profit health and human services advocacy group.

And: In Cold Blood. Pyscho. Just two of the more famous examples of “true crime” novels and movies. But not every criminal case is written about or adapted for the big screen. And even high-profile cases, covered extensively by media in the moment, can, over time, fade from our collective memory. Those are the stories John Nova Lomax and Mike Vance wanted to tell. They’ve compiled them into a new book called Murder and Mayhem in Houston: Historic Bayou City Crime. Houston Matters’ Michael Hagerty will talk with co-author Mike Vance about the project.